Articles

How to Generate Better Ideas Photo courtesty swanksalot How many times have you heard this: “we’ve got to be more creative around here,” or “we need some creative solutions...

7 Ways to Have More Creative Ideas Than You Thought Possible By Dan Goodwin Anyone who creates needs a steady influx of new ideas. Everything every created, everything ever invented, began with a tiny gem...

Easy Steps to Help You Break Through Your Creative Wall By John Kostrzewski No matter how experienced, we all hit the creative wall at one point or another in our career. If gone unchecked...

Increase Creativity In Two Steps By Steve Gillman To increase creativity, you need to do two things. First, you need to encourage it. Second, you need to train your...

Tips for Machine Quilting Looking to find some tips on how to make your free motion quilting simply “fabulous”? I plan to have the “Fabulous Free Motion Quilting”...

Books

Handmade Embroidered Bags I’ve been working a lot with bags and purses lately. I really like working with the small size and I’m having fun with unusual...

Fabric Embellishing This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations. Details can be found here and for additional information on the Titivations DVD, please...

Image Transfer Books Some recommended reading … The New Photo Crafts: Photo Transfer Techniques and Projects for Fabric, Paper, Wood, Polymer Clay & More Next Steps in...

Embellishing with Anything This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations. Details can be found here and for additional information on the Titivations DVD, please...

Beading on Fabric This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations. Details can be found here and for additional information on the Titivations DVD, please...

Fine Embellishment Techniques This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations. Details can be found here and for additional information on the Titivations DVD, please...

Embellished Clothing This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations. Details can be found here and for additional information on the Titivations DVD, please...

Fabric Manipulations This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations. Details can be found here and for additional information on the Titivations DVD, please...

Machine Needlelace This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations. Details can be found here and for additional information on the Titivations DVD, please...

Creative Embellishments This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations. Details can be found here and for additional information on the Titivations DVD, please...

Finally – Digital Art Explained Creatively Attention all you creative Photoshopoholics – there’s a new book in town written JUST for you. Every now and then I browse through the...

Inspiration For All You Eccentric Fashionistas What inspires you … to be daring … to be different Be inspired by Iris Apfel … Want more? Enjoy the slideshow or check...

Stitch, Cloth, Paper, Paint If you follow my blog, you should know by now that I love to work with fabric paper. I print on it I paint...

Creatively Recycled

Creative Recycling If you’re anything like me, it’s hard to throw away “useful” pieces of fabric, particularly if they’re interesting or beautiful. I have a lot...

More Creative Recycling Do you ever have creative ideas that just won’t let go? I often do, but I also think that they also serve a purpose....

Creatively Recycled: From Tablecloth to Applique to Tote I get a strong sense of satisfaction when I finish a project to completion, and I’m sure you do also, but in opposition I...

Creatively Recycled: Buddha Bag It’s amazing what you can do with a few scraps of fabric and a little imagination! As you know I’ve recently been on a...

What Was I Thinking? When I said the other day … “I’m not sure if I’ll embellish this art bag.” Of course I was going to embellish it!...

Digital Art

New Digital Art Designs Some new digital art designs I’ve been working on … I couldn’t make up my mind which color I liked better, so I like...

Embellishments

Titivations This week I’m sharing with you some of my favorite techniques. Yesterday we looked at machine needle felting. Today it’s all about Embellishments. Whether...

Free Motion Quilting

Free Motion Quilting … Just Fabulous! This week I’m sharing with you some of my favorite techniques. On Tuesday we looked at machine needle felting, yesterday was all about Titivating...

Handbags Purses & Totes

Chaos and Order Way back when I was dressmaking I once had a client who freaked out when she saw all her beautiful fabric cut into pieces...

Purses Totes & Handbags Updated for July Now Listing Over 180 Free Patterns & Tutorials Head over to the Free Purses Totes & Handbags listings and click on the Alphabetical Section...

Purses Totes & Handbags Updated for August Just updated … and now listing over 200 links to free purse, tote and handbag patterns and tutorials. Pick your favorite from the images...

How To

Attaching Invisible Magnetic Snaps I’ve been playing around making purses with unusual shapes and I really like this one with it’s wavy asymmetrical top edge. For both the...

How To Make Your Own Fabric Labels With the abundance of handmade items around, particularly on online stores like Etsy, it’s a good idea to attach your own fabric label to...

Images

Stitching – Not Just For Fabric newly stitched acacia wood plates, originally uploaded by anczelowitz. Isn’t this fabulous? Stitched acacia wood plates. Continue reading →

Interesting Websites

The Scariest Colors Imaginable Photo courtesty Capture Queen ™ For textile and quilt artists, that’s a scary thought! The ColorLovers blog has an interesting article about this very...

Magstitch If you love the work of Maggie Grey, she has a new blog, Magstitch, which should certainly be on your list of bookmarks. Visit...

The Freedom of Hand Embroidery I love to do handwork when I can find the time. French knots in particular hold a fascination – they can blend and twist...

YarnBombing Anyone? This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations. Details can be found here and for additional information on the Titivations DVD, please...

Embellishing with Hand Stitches This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations. Details can be found here and for additional information on the Titivations DVD, please...

Thread Painting Tutorials This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations. Details can be found here and for additional information on the Titivations DVD, please...

Pretty Things For Your Feet I recently became a fan of Tracy Porter who has an online blog and store, and not in the least because of these beautiful...

Adventures in Knitting Hands up who likes to knit? I find knitting very relaxing and I remember spending many days when I was very young, with my...

Silken Threads Those of us who work with fabric, whether it’s making art quilts, garments or any of the other zillion things you can do with...

Machine Needle Felting

Machine Needle Felting This week on the blog I’m sharing with you some of my very favorite techniques and you know they’re my favorites because I’ve written...

Resources

Embellishments with Attitude Today kicks off the 30 Days of Titivations here on my blog – a fun way to celebrate the re-release of my instructional DVD...

Invisible Magnetic Snaps – A Fabulous Way to Close Things I’ve been asked by many of you where I get my invisible magnetic snaps from. Invisible magnetic snaps are small, thin magnetic discs encased...

Sewing Techniques

Hand Dyed Fabric: Playing with Complementary Colors As the weather here in Florida turns nice and warm, I finally got the chance to go play in my dye room the other...

Hand Dyed Fabric: Still Playing with Complementary Colors If you remember the beautiful hand dyed fabric that I ended up with last week after my fun dye-day, for a few days they...

Hand Dyed Fabric: All Done Playing with Complementary Colors If you have been following the process: It started here with some hand dyed fabrics; then I began the design process; and now for...

Decorative Stitches in Focus PS To learn some of the fabulous techniques I use in my work, stop by the store and check out my instructional dvds. I...

Attaching Invisible Magnetic Snaps I’ve been playing around making purses with unusual shapes and I really like this one with it’s wavy asymmetrical top edge. For both the...

Sewing 101 How are your sewing skills? I like to think I have excellent sewing skills. I’ve been sewing constantly since I was a very young...

Something To Think About

Exploring Photo courtesy of JMC Photos And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for...

Voyage of Discovery Photo courtesy of extranoise We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which...

Follow Your Bliss Photo courtesy www.morguefile.com If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while...

Pause Photo courtesy www.morguefile.com Learn to pause … or nothing worthwhile will catch up to you. Doug King Continue reading →

When we let our own light shine Let’s start a new week and a new month and a new day with a beautiful, inspirational quote from Marianne Williamson, and a gorgeous...

The Road Not Taken Let’s start the week with one of my favorite inspirational poems by Robert Frost together with a beautiful accompanying photo taken by buksy4free. This...

Having Wings I always like to start the working week with some inspiration and I love to waste a few minutes each day browsing Flickr because...

Miracles and Moments A little inspiration to start the week. Today enjoy this evocative image from Chi King. Miracles come in moments. Be ready and willing. Wayne...

Textile Art Tutorials

Embellishing with Fusible Thread This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations. Details can be found here and for additional information on the Titivations DVD, please...

Angelina Fiber Tutorials This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations. Details can be found here and for additional information on the Titivations DVD, please...

Paintstik Tutorials This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations. Details can be found here and for additional information on the Titivations DVD, please...

Thread Painting Tutorials This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations. Details can be found here and for additional information on the Titivations DVD, please...

Fabric Poppies I just love poppies. I like most colors, but I particularly love red poppies. The color is so bright and beautiful, and the flower...

Working with Water Soluble Stabilizer As well as printing on fabric, I also love to work with water soluble stabilizer and today I’ve rounded up some of my favorite...

Videos

Custom Fabric Printing Spoonflower is a company that will print your own design and make custom fabric for you at a very reasonable price. This short video...

Inside The Box Pushing at the Seams I’m not a strong proponent of the phrase “thinking outside the box”. I think that phrase places too much emphasis on creating ideas from...

Printing on Tissue Paper One of my favorite techniques is image transfer. Mostly I like to transfer images directly to fabric using various methods, however sometimes I also...

Using Decorative Stitches to Embellish This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations. Details can be found here and for additional information on the Titivations DVD, please...

The Secret Life of the Sewing Machine This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations. Details can be found here and for additional information on the Titivations DVD, please...

Fabric Beads This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations. Details can be found here and for additional information on the Titivations DVD, please...

Angelina Fiber Tutorial This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations. Details can be found here and for additional information on the Titivations DVD, please...

Using Paintstiks This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations. Details can be found here and for additional information on the Titivations DVD, please...

Embossing Velvet This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations. Details can be found here and for additional information on the Titivations DVD, please...

Thread Painting This post is part of the 30 Days of Titivations. Details can be found here and for additional information on the Titivations DVD, please...

Inspiration For All You Eccentric Fashionistas What inspires you … to be daring … to be different Be inspired by Iris Apfel … Want more? Enjoy the slideshow or check...